


Where the Diamond Is

by RyMagnatar



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, M/M, Post-Game, and feferi has feels about moirails, in which roxy isn't drunk for once, magical after-game planet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-27
Updated: 2012-05-27
Packaged: 2017-11-06 02:24:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/413676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyMagnatar/pseuds/RyMagnatar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Sburb/grub, you, Sollux Captor, are dealing with very few issues. You have a matesprit, a moirail and a cozy little camp of 12 of your closest friends and enemies. Wait, did you say 12? You meant 11. It seems someone is missing and your matesprit is going to find out why. Oh, and she'll be taking you along for the ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the Diamond Is

Feferi is the one who says something about it first, although all the rest of your session mates have already noticed it too.

In this strange post-game planet, where everything is a little foreign---- like a sun that doesn’t scorch you- and yet familiar –two brilliant moons in the sky at night---you have all sort of _settled_ into your own groups. For the most part, each group of twelve trolls sticks to its own, though you tend to find a few who move from one group to the other. Last you saw all eight of the humans were one solid group, moving and living and being together in remarkable unity.

You know Feferi would like that sort of unity amongst the twenty four of you, but for all her attempts to keep peace, the personalities don’t mesh well. Besides, how can you all form one group if one of you has left you all behind entirely?

Feferi brings it up one evening as you all sit around the fire. Karkat still likes to play leader, even though the game is done and you should all be free to do whatever, but there is just enough uncertainty that no one really hates him for assuming control. He opens the circle to discuss worries or problems and Feferi sits up slowly from where her head is resting against your shoulder. Her eyes were the last to turn color, but in their magenta coloring the fire’s flames are reflected as she looks around the group. She speaks softly, though everyone can hear her, “Has anyone seen Eridan?”

You tense. You see Kanaya do the same, her lips turning down slightly in a frown. Vriska laughs like just saying his name is some great joke and something twists inside of you. The dead half of you had seen Eridan from time to time in the bubbles.

He never looked at you, just sat alone with his cape curled around his shoulders and his head down. Every single time that you saw him he was seeping purple blood from around his middle. There were times when you thought you were still alive, you remember, brief moments where you could see perfectly fine. Times when you heard echoes of voices in your head like you had when you were alive.

You don’t think Eridan ever remembered being alive. Or if he did it wasn’t while you were around.

That probably had something to do with him not being able to look at you.

Surprisingly, it’s Gamzee who has something to say about this, “Eribro’s been with the humans.” He gives a little smile but there’s an edge in his voice, in his eyes, that makes you shudder. Karkat absently reaches up and pats Gamzee’s face.

“With the humans? I’m surprised they can even stand to be around him!” Vriska laughs again.

“How do you know, Gamzee?” Feferi leans in, all earnestness.

“Gotta keep an eye on the blasphemer,” Gamzee mumbles from behind Karkat’s patting hand. “I go and watch him and I see Eribro there too. Don’t know what the motherfuck he’s thinking he’s doing but he’s with them now.”

Feferi bites her lip, nodding thoughtfully. She gives Gamzee a gracious thank you and then looks to you. Her glance is quick, but you see a sort of pleading in it. You sigh and rub your forehead. You had best get some good sleep tonight for tomorrow you’ll begin looking for the human camp.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

The humans are strangely mobile. Your group of trolls and the other group have both settled down in one spot- a sort of forested hilly area for your group and a cliff side for the other group- but the human’s don’t settle. Only a month ago they were deep in the woods together, you could see the smoke from their fire rising out from the trees, but now they’re down by the ocean. It takes you and Feferi three nights to reach them, a trip she is strangely quiet during. You had asked Aradia to come, since she was your moirail, but she had simply said this was a trip you needed to make with your matesprit and smiled.

Feferi gets a glow about her as she gets closer to the ocean, the fins on her head move slightly in the sea breeze and a brightness fills her eyes. There’s a river nearby your camp and she often swims in it, but you had no idea she was missing the ocean this much. Her hand curls around yours and she begins to tug you faster as the dunes come in sight.

It’s about mid-morning when you arrive. And if not for the sand all over everywhere you wouldn’t be feeling quite so hot. Feferi and you creep up the back side of the dunes on your bellies, because you hear voices on the other side of the sand.

Most of the humans are gathered together on a blanket, talking together and eating or whatever, but your attention is on the three that aren’t sitting around. It’s the two blonds boys, the Striders, and Eridan. They stand in the shallows, the tides rolling in to about their ankles. Strider One, with rounded glasses, is wearing dark pants and no shirt with the legs of his pants rolled up to his knees. He stands off to the side with his arms crossed over his chest, just watching.

Strider Two, with pointed glasses, is wearing shorts and a black sleeveless shirt. You can see the tattoo on his shoulder move as he lifts his arms. He’s holding a sword and is staring Ampora down.

Your fellow troll is shirtless as well, wearing his stupid striped pants that have been rolled up to his knees. The bright violet of his gills that curl along the back of his ribs around to his shoulderblades, are moving slightly with his chest, indicating he’s breathing through them at least a little. He has his gaze focused on Strider Two and in his hands he holds a sword as well.

Feferi gives a worried trill as she watches them, inching closer to the top of the dune. You put your hand on her shoulder and shake your head.

When you both look back you’ve already missed the beginning of the strife.

Strider moves faster than you can quite catch, though from the way Feferi’s eyes flicker from side to side you have a feeling she can almost see him. Eridan doesn’t move much. It’s pretty clear he’s on the defensive from the beginning. He twists, turns, again and again and each time metal crashes against metal. The water splashes and sprays around the points where Strider’s feet touch the ground momentarily. You’ve never seen Eridan move so quickly, nor with such concentration on his face.

There’s one long moment where Strider appears in front of him and the swords clang together to form a metal X between the two of them. The human is breathing heavily. Eridan’s fins on his face flare and he grins at Strider with all his teeth. He begins to push back. You can see his muscles rippling under his grey skin and it reminds you of that time Equius lifted up that fallen tree.

Eridan begins to push and Strider begins to slide backwards in the sand. You watch as he gets one, then two and finally three steps before Strider backs away. He moves like a flash again and in a sort of awe you watch as Eridan twists around to block his attack. You had no idea he could hold a sword like that.

The humans must be teaching him. That has to be what this is.

The battle continues on for quite a while until Strider’s back where he started and panting heavily. He wipes his hand across his forehead and smirks. Eridan smiles back; shakes out one hand, drying his palm on the hip of his pants, and lifting the blade defensively again. You wonder why he doesn’t attack, why he just waits for Strider.

Strider Two doesn’t turn his head as he addresses the other human, “He really can see me coming.” He lifts his empty hand, lowering his sword.

Strider One steps over and high fives him, or you suppose, he tags himself in, “Told you.” He holds out his hand and Strider Two gives him the sword.

Eridan licks his lips and shifts his focus from one to the other. He alters his stance a little and takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He actually looks like he knows what he’s doing, which has to be impossible. You all haven’t been here for more than a few seasons, and for the first two Eridan was with your group.

Suddenly, as the first Strider begins the strife, you realize you don’t remember exactly when Eridan left. There were a few days when he would go missing more and more often and then nothing. He just left and he never came back.

He hadn’t said anything to you, or to Feferi, or to _anyone_ before he left. One morning he was there and by that evening gone, never to return. You frown, watching them strife. You can’t tell if this Strider is better than the other until the moment when the tip of his blade scores down Eridan’s arm.

Feferi gasps beside you when violet begins dripping down onto the sand. Strider pauses for one second but Eridan gives him this shrug and so the blond leaps right back into battle.

It lasts a few minutes more but when Eridan’s hand slips a little on handle and Strider’s blade slices over the back of his knuckles the fight is suddenly over. Eridan hisses in pain but doesn’t drop the sword. Strider Two is over in a heartbeat, taking it from him and putting it away while Strider One puts away his own blade and checks Eridan’s hand.

That’s when you notice Feferi is up and over the dune. She’s racing down the sand, reaching out towards him, “Eridan!”

His eyes are wide and he leans back, away from her. Both Striders stare her down but she ignores them in the way she always ignores someone she simply doesn’t want to even recognize exists. Brushing right past them she takes the hand of her ex-moirail and once hopeful flushed suitor and looks at the wound, “You should be more careful! You could really damage yourself fighting like this!”

You hurry up and over the dune, heading over to them and doing your best to ignore the way all the humans sitting off to the side are just _staring_ at you two like you’re intruders into their paradise. It isn’t until later that you realize that’s exactly how they see you two.

Eridan pulls his hand away from Feferi’s and says coolly, like he’s been getting more lessons than sword handling from the Striders, “I wasn’t fightin’. I was trainin’. Dave and Dirk are teachin’ me how to use the sword considerin’ the fact I lost the Crosshairs and I haven’t gotten much else to go and defend myself with.” He flexes his fingers and then says, “I’ll be fuckin’ fine everythin’ still moves.”

Strider Two turns and calls out to the other humans, “Roxy! Can you bring over the first aid?”

One of the blonde human girls does this weird wriggle off of the lap of one of the human boys and gets pushed up to her feet. As she comes walking across the sand with a box in hand, Feferi is reaching for Eridan’s hand again. “Let me see it! I can heal you! Why won’t you let me kelp?”

He jerked his hand away again, rougher this time and losing all of the cool that he had before. “I don’t need your fuckin’ help! What are you even doin’ here? And with _him_ along?” He jerks his chin towards you. Your back stiffens automatically and you meet his gaze. His irises are bright violet, and in the light reflecting off the sand, they burn.

“I’m worried about you!” Feferi cries, “Why else would I come all the way out here!” The blonde girl is hesitating, a few feet away now, watching the interaction between your matesprit and your once possible-kismesis. Feferi ignores her. She ignores all of the humans entirely as she reaches out and grabs Eridan’s arm, “We miss you Eridan. Why did you leave us behind for these humans? Why did you abandon all your friends?”

Strider Two snorts and Strider One barks out a laugh. But it’s the girl, Roxy?, who bursts into action. She shoves the box into Strider One’s hands and pushes her way between Feferi and Eridan. She pulls the hand off of Eridan and crosses her arms over her chest. “Who exactly are you to go and say somethin’ like that? Like you know who his friends even are!”

You don’t have to see Feferi’s face to know she’s flushing in anger. The way she leans in, her fists clenched tight at her sides and the high pitch of her voice as well as the increase in fishpuns is proof enough. “I was his moirail! I bet I know who his fronds are a whale lot better than some glubbing human!”

“Well guess what?” The human leans in, just as threatening and upset as your matesprit. “I’m his moirail right the fuck now!” she lifted one of her hands, showing her fingers in a V shape, or rather, half of a diamond. Your eyes widen as you see Eridan step up behind her and with a defiant look in his face he completes the diamond with a pair of his own fingers.

“You little beach, humans can’t fill moirail quadrants properly! You don’t know what he needs! You have no idea how it’s supposed to work!” She stamps her foot and you wince. Feferi can get into quitea rant on the subject of moirails. When you had suggested being her moirail she had giggled and dismissed you entirely in that quadrant. She was fare pickier about her pale square than she was her flushed, black or ashen, you figured. “Eridan, you need to leave these humans and come back to our group! We nee-“

There’s this crunch of knuckles to bone and Feferi staggers backwards. Eridan’s face is a mixture of horror and shock, but besides your own surprise, as you rush to support Feferi, the other three- the humans right around you- look smug as fuck. The Roxy girl is shaking out her fingers and there's a glimmer of pink on her knuckles and a protective look in her eyes. Feferi slowly wipes magenta blood from her lip and you see spades in her gaze as she prepares to lunge back.

“Fef, I’m fuckin’ happy here, with all of them,” Eridan’s voice is soft. He puts one hand, the uninjured one, curled onto Roxy’s shoulder and steps forward to rest his other hand on Strider One’s shoulder. Purple drips sluggishly down his fingers onto the bare skin but the human doesn’t even seem to notice. Eridan stands between the two of them with a pleading expression, “I wasn’t happy with all the others. Fuck, I wasn’t even very well liked. Even you used to avoid talkin’ to me. This is a brand new fuckin’ planet and I’m choosin’ to stay with Dave and Rox and the others. So would you do me one last goddamn favor and just leave? I don’t want you here. I don’t need you here. You’re only making a fool of yourself.”

Feferi’s shoulders shake. You run a soothing hand over her shoulder blades but you know she’s just barely holding back her tears. “You reel-y feel this way?” Her voice is thick and heavy with something that could be sorrow, “You won’t ever come back home?”

The Roxy girl puts her hand over Eridan’s on her shoulder and Strider One—Dave you assume—does the same with the one on his. Eridan stares silently for a second and then replies, “Fef, I finally am home. My home is _here_.”

Feferi looks from one person to the next, confused and silent.

Eridan finishes the conversation with a little smile, “You always said home is where the diamond is. Well here I have both my heart and my diamond so I don’t see how any other place on any other planet could even come close to bein' my home.”

The words struck Feferi almost physically. She turned away, eyes searching your face. You put a hand on her cheek, keeping to yourself how utterly pathetic she looked, and then look past her to Eridan. You give a smirk and say, “Later fithhfucker.”

He rolls his eyes but returns the smirk, “Get lost, doubledick.”

The insults are half-hearted at best but enough of a goodbye from you to him. You put your arms under Feferi’s and with a surge of red and blue psionics carry the both of you into the sky.

You’re moving quickly, burning through the sky with Feferi crying against your chest as you soar back to your camp. You want to get her where she can calm down as soon as possible.

The whole way back, Feferi clings to you, whimpering out the words, “I w-wanted him as my moray-eel again!” over and over. She’ll get over it, you figured. She’s strong like that. And if not, well, it would be just one more pitiful thing about her for you to care for.


End file.
